How dare you suggest I can't take criticism

It’s a bit like the person who says sorry when you tell them to stop apologising. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who on 12th June cemented his place in Turkish history by leading his AK party to a third consecutive election victory, is not a man who handles criticism well. Just ask Michael Dickinson, an English teacher living in Istanbul, who was sued by Erdogan in 2006 after creating a collage of the prime minister’s head atop a dog’s body. Or two Turkish students who have languished in prison for over a year after unfurling a banner at an Erdogan speech calling for free education. The latest victim is The Economist, which was tongue-lashed by Erdogan on the campaign trail for suggesting that his intolerance of criticism meant it might not be a bad idea if Turks opted to vote for the opposition. The prime minister, along with several members of his government, growled menacingly about Israeli conspiracies, capitalist plots and "mafia-like organisations."  One even vowed to unfollow the magazine on Twitter.

Erdogan’s proof-in-praxis came just weeks after Paul Kagame, the Rwandan president, engaged in a bizarre Twitter war with Ian Birrell, a British journalist (and regular contributor to Prospect) who had described his attacks on the media as "despotic and deluded." Birrell had "no moral right" to criticise him, said Kagame, who is reportedly inseparable from his Twitter feed, much to the exasperation of his advisers.  Still this pales against the case of Fergus Cochrane-Dyet, Britain’s high commissioner to Malawi. In April a local newspaper leaked a diplomatic cable in which Cochrane-Dyet described President Bingu wa Mutharik as "intolerant of criticism." The president’s response? To boot him out of the country.